Never stop your Medication without consulting your Cardiologist

Improve your diet without going on a diet
Eating is one of life's great pleasures. A healthy balanced diet will make you feel much better and can help you reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. It's better to start eating nutritious food you enjoy than to go on a fad diet. Sad but true: the only diet that really works is positively changing the way you eat for the rest of your life.

- Eat lots of fruit and vegetables (at least 5-7 servings a day)
- Eat a variety of grain products especially whole grains
- Choose low-fat and fat-free products
- Use soft margarines, sunflower, corn, rape-seed and olive oils instead of butter and other animal fats
- Eat more fish, beans and pulses, and lean meat

- Foods that are high in calories and low in nutritional value, like soft drinks, sweets, pastries and cakes
- Foods that are high in animal fat and cholesterol, like full-fat milk, fatty meats, butter, tropical oils (palm and coconut), and hard margarines
- Fat on meat and skin from poultry is better removed
- Avoid frying. Cook foods in a way that helps to remove fat, like boiling, baking, broiling, roasting and stewing
- Reduce the salt in your diet, especially if you have high blood pressure
- If you drink alcohol, limit it to one drink a day if you are a woman, or two if you are a man

Help family, friends and work colleagues by lobbying your community leaders, government representatives, and work-place decision-makers to make healthy foods available in schools, workplaces and shops.